Category: Understanding Romans
(Romans 4:9-12, Literal Translation)
Therefore, was this blessing upon the circumcision or also upon the uncircumcision? Because we say belief was counted to Abraham for righteousness. Therefore, in what way was it counted? To the one being in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, rather in uncircumcision. And he received a sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of belief which he had in uncircumcision, for him to be the father of all of those who trust by means of uncircumcision, for righteousness to be counted to them, and the father of the circumcision to those not from circumcision alone, rather also to those who are in line with the footsteps of the belief of our father Abraham in uncircumcision.
Therefore, was this blessing upon the circumcision or also upon the uncircumcision?… In 4:1, Paul inquired as to what Abraham had found in regard to justification. The answer was justification by faith alone. Now he asks a follow-up question, he wants to know whether Abraham was justified before or after he was circumcised.
Not in circumcision, rather in uncircumcision… A quick glance at the historical record in Genesis will show that Abraham was declared righteous prior to his circumcision. In 15:6, when his faith was counted for righteousness, Abraham had no children (15:2). In Chapter 17, Abraham received the command to circumcise his descendants and he began with his 13 year old son Ishmael. Clearly, at least 13 years passed between Abraham's justification and the inauguration of circumcision. The obvious implication is that Abraham's justification was not dependent upon, nor caused by, circumcision. He was counted righteous before he was circumcised.
And he received a sign of circumcision… Once there was a slave named Horas, his was the third generation of servants who attended the king personally. One day, to his utter surprise and delight, the king released Horas and his family from their obligations and gave them a large parcel of land. Horas was a free man. He went immediately and built a house and a barn, purchased animals, planted crops, and moved his family to their new domicile.
Two years later, Horas was summoned to the palace for a ceremony wherein his emancipation was committed to writing. A scribe penned as the king dictated the full and final liberty which he had bestowed upon Horas and his family. After the document was complete, the scribe rolled up the scroll and presented it to the king for his official seal. The king dipped his signet ring into the wax and sealed the scroll, and the scroll was presented to Horas.
The elated Horas went home and built a wooden box with a glass front to enclose the letter. He placed the scroll in the box and hung it in the center of the great room where it would be easily seen. In the days to come, when people who knew of Horas' former status questioned his citizenship, Horas would invite them to come see his scroll as proof. And whenever he happened to pass by the box he would look up gratefully remembering what the king had done for him.
In this story, the scroll was very important to Horas; but it was not the cause of Horas' freedom; it was an account of it. The cause was the decree of the king. Even if the scroll had never been written Horas would have been free. The scroll was simply a sign of the king's gracious fiat.
A sign is not the thing itself, rather it points to the thing. My wife, my children, and I prove this fact every time we travel to visit our family, for after only a few hours of driving we encounter a sign which reads St. Louis 540 Miles. We would all be thrilled if this sign were our destination, but although the sign says 'St. Louis', the actual city is still several hours away.
My signature is my sign; it is not me, but it represents me. Tiger Woods is paid an obscene amount of money to wear a little swoosh on his clothing because it is the insignia of a huge corporation. He would not receive large sums of money to wear clothes with little apostrophes on them because they would be insignificant, they would point to nothing.
Circumcision was a sign for Abraham, it pointed to something other than itself—the righteousness that he obtained by believing God's promise. His righteousness was not dependent upon circumcision anymore than Horas' freedom was dependent upon the scroll. Abraham was justified throughout the 13 plus years which predated his circumcision, and he would have remained justified even if God had never ordained the sign. Nevertheless, the Scriptures show that it is common practice for God to give a sign when He makes a covenant. After He drowned all flesh except those who entered the ark, God gave the rainbow as a sign which pointed to His covenant promise never to do so again. When He chose Israel as His special people and made a unique covenant with them, God commanded them to set apart the Sabbath Day as a sign that they were a divinely set apart nation. When God credited righteousness to Abraham, he gave circumcision as a sign of His covenant promise.
One place where the Jews went astray was in missing the significance of signs. They took the signs to be ends in themselves, rather than pointers to something else. The Sabbath did not make Israel holy, God made them holy; the Sabbath pointed to what God had done. Likewise, circumcision did not make Abraham’s offspring righteous, God made them righteous through faith.